Is Michael Steele Playing the Race Card?

RNC Chair Michael Steele has lately drawn fire from every direction for spatting with fellow
Republicans, splurging RNC money,
and myriad other mini-scandals.
But now Steele has brought race into it. When asked by Good Morning
America's George Stephanopoulos if he has a "slimmer margin for error"
because of his race, he replied, "The honest answer is yes.
It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin ... That’s just the
reality of it."

So Much For 'I Don't Play the Race Card'
The Washington Post's Greg Sargent chuckles,
"Flashback: Steele Said He Doesn’t Play 'Race Game,' Claimed Dems Do."
Sargent reproduces some choice 2009 quotes of Steele accusing Democrats
of using their race a political crutch. Sargent writes, "Who, precisely,
does Steele think gives him less room for error because of his race?
Seems like there are only two possibilities here: He’s either talking
about the media, or about fellow Republicans."

Steele's Race
Gives Him Wider Margin of Error The Atlantic's Joshua Green gets real. "Michael Steele has plenty of problems, but his race
isn't one of them. Steele is hapless,
solipsistic, and incompetent," he writes. "Far
from being a problem, his race is all that's standing between Steele
and a pink slip. The GOP, on the other hand, does
have a race problem. It won't fire Michael Steele because he is black."

GOP
Race Plan Backfires The Guardian's Michael Tomasky suspects
that Republicans only nominated him RNC chair because he was black,
hoping to counterbalance Barack Obama's strong political appeal to
minorities. "Let's face it, they decided that with a black Democratic
president in the White House, they ought to go ahead and choose a black
chairman to show America that they were 'diverse' too," he writes. "He's
one strange dude. The Republicans elevated him for transparent reasons
with foreknowledge of all this."

Steele Is Right
Conservative blogger Dan Riehl fumes, "To suggest that
what Steele said isn't still accurate in significant portions of
America is a denial and refusal to engage in the type of frank
discussion of race which may ultimately be required to put an end to
racism in America for good." He writes, "Steele didn't lead with the
race card. He responded honestly to a question when it was asked. Since
when in America has it become a good idea to lynch someone for simply
doing that?"

Race and Scandal Reason's Matt Welch disdains White House Press Secretary Robert
Gibbs's quip that "I think Michael Steele's problem isn't the race
card, it's the credit card." Welch writes, "Steele is doing
himself no favors by bringing
race into a discussion about corruption and strip clubs; and the
White House continues to (both wisely and accurately, in my
judgment) downplay the racial element in modern politics. I have no
doubt that Obama's supporters will not, in this case, follow the
president's lead."